First Photo: Chelsea Complete £7m Demba Ba Deal, Poses With New Work Uniform

It’s official, Chelsea have signed their first ever Senegalese player…

According to the statement on the Chelsea site, Ba has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract for an undisclosed fee (widely reported to be approx. £7 million) and will wear the No. 29 shirt at Stamford Bridge.

What do the Chelsea/Newcastle/neutrals have to say about this one? Can Torres and Ba play together? Can Papiss Cisse fill the void, etc, etc?

its going to be hard for newcastle to fill the space left by Ba and Cisse definitely needs to start playing as if it was season 2011/2012. but surely they are going to bring someone in to replace him, rumours of Remi would be impressive but also heard Welbeck although the sunderland connection might not go down well.

@AT – as a fellow Toon supporter, I am sad to see him go, but I do not particularly hold anyone to blame in terms of the contract.

Ba is reported to have negotiated similar clauses into his previous contracts and, at the time, we needed a striker. Plus, the £2m we paid for him was widely considered (at the time) to be risky, due to Ba failing a medical at Stoke beforehand.

Since then, the Board has tried (at least, that is what the club propaganda states) to remove the clause and tie him down for a longer contract, but to no avail. These things happen.

Thankfully, no such clauses are (reported) to exist in our other contracts.

Who knows, we might become the Newcastle of old and put in a speculative bid for Neymar!

I’m a Newcastle fan and i’m gutted to see him go but to be honest it was inevitable and I’m pleased it happened at the beginning of Jan and we have time to fill the gap….With the players we have to come back and maybe one (or 2) more decent signings and hopefully things will start to pick up….And please Colo don’t go to San Lorenzo

JS – Don’t be silly. If another company came in and offered you a job which would almost double your income, would you say no? Of course you wouldn’t. Ba never proclaimed loyalty to Newcastle. He’s not from Newcastle. He went because he got a good offer and he’s left for the same reason. Bigger club, better money, more chance at winning trophies. If you wouldn’t do the same, you’re an idiot.